Perot Supporters Launch Patriot Party

Ross Perot's core supporters in Pennsylvania yesterday held their first convention as an independent party, choosing the name "Patriot Party" on a 43-16 vote at the Harrisburg Hilton Hotel.

The party elected Wind Gap attorney Nicholas Sabatine III as its first state chairman, and approved a statement of principles that mirrors many of the planks in Perot's 1992 presidential run.

Vowing to "empower the owners of our country to take our country back," the Patriot Party's founders also voted not to take positions on divisive social issues such as abortion, gun control and homosexuals in the military.

Doing so would detract from the party's fundamental message of free-market economics, deficit reduction, governmental accountability and public participation, Sabatine said.

Sabatine said he believes Pennsylvania's Patriot Party is the first Perot spin-off party in the United States to organize formally.

The party will be governed by a 119-member state committee, made up of a county chairman from each of the 67 counties; a representative from each of the 50 state senate districts; and two at-large members appointed by the state chairman.

There were 59 state committee members present at yesterday's inaugural meeting -- 33 county chairs and 26 senate-district representatives. Sabatine said the party will move quickly to fill the remaining state-committee seats.

Sabatine, 41, a Wind Gap attorney who lives in Washington Township, has been a Democrat all his life but never was involved in politics until he and his father watched Perot last year on Larry King Live.

"That's how we got started," Sabatine said.

Sabatine became one of Perot's most energetic Pennsylvania volunteers, helping to gather some 320,000 petition signatures to put Perot on the Pennsylvania presidential ballot.

Perot won 18 percent of the vote Nov. 3 in Pennsylvania, 906,667 votes in all.

The party's immediate goals are two, said Sabatine: to field a candidate in the July special election for a Bucks County state Senate; and to register approximately 1 million party members by October.

Registering 1 million voters, approximately, would legally establish the Patriot Party as a major party in Pennsylvania for the 1994 election, allowing the Patriot Party to have a primary election, like the Democrats and Republicans.

The Patriot Party now is a minor party, similar to the Libertarian Party or the Natural Law Party, and cannot conduct its own primary elections.

Sabatine said the party already has interviewed eight or nine candidates for the Bucks County Senate election. And he said two potential 1994 gubernatorial candidates have contacted him about running under the Patriot Party banner.

One was Scranton lawyer Charles J. Volpe Jr., a millionaire businessman who has been rumored as a possible Democratic Party candidate. The other was a Republican whom Sabatine would not identify.

The Patriot Party welcomes campaign contributions, but not from political action committees, Sabatine said. Individuals can contribute as much as they want, but "should not expect anything in return," Sabatine said.

The party was tentatively slated to be called the New Patriot Party, but the founders yesterday decided to drop the "new." There were 15 party names suggested in all, Sabatine said, including the Mad Party.

Sabatine said the Patriot Party now is formally detached from Perot, who had requested that his followers do so. But he said the party will continue to work with Perot's public-interest corporation, United We Stand America Inc.

Sabatine said the Patriot Party is committed to doing the right thing, not the politically expedient thing.

The party's No. 1 principle adopted yesterday was that "the primary test for the value of any policy or activity of this party will be what is good for the country, the state, the community, and the people, NOT what is good for the party."

The party's principles also hint at support for private-school tuition vouchers. Principle No. 11 is "We shall seek excellence in education through a system based upon equal access and competition, free from burdensome government regulations."

Anyone interested in learning more about the party can call 1-800-633-7287.